Heterogeneous Impact of Geographic Barriers on Provider Choice Evidence from New York County’s Health Market

Abstract

Health services should be accessible regardless of citizens’ gender, age, race, or insurance type, and geographic barriers should not interfere with this access. This article aims to assess the heterogeneous impacts of geographic barriers on inpatients’ hospital choices and to examine whether they vary according inpatients’ socioeconomic or insurance status. Using data on providers and inpatients obtained from the New York State Bureau of Health Informatics Office of Quality and Patient Safety for New York County (New York City’s borough of Manhattan) for 2009, we employed a discrete choice model. Our findings reveal that geographic barriers limit inpatients’ choices of hospitals more when they are of low socioeconomic status.